Do you remember your schools days when you used to sit in a class, used to listen what teacher said, memorized what you understood and tried to pass a test. Those were just boring days. But nowadays many schools have become effective and more interesting
by making students focus on the work that matters.
Students are becoming more creative, work efficient and smart after the introduction of project based learning. Project Based Learning-PBL is an effective classroom activity that shifts boring, one way interactive and teacher centered environment to interdisciplinary and student centered activity.
Here, the learning experiences are designed as real world projects. Success involves critical thinking, collaboration and communication. These things won’t happen with traditional classes, but PBL is the answer for such things. If students focus on projects, that improves their knowledge and skills. Students will understand and remember what they are taught, it helps them to pass the exam, but after some days they will forget what they have learned. But in Project Based Learning, they involve, participate and contribute their work towards a project that they’ve given. It makes them to remember for a longer period. And one more thing is many classroom projects are group activities, so the student’s leadership as well as participation, responsibility will be increased. There are several tools that support project based learning. Keep reading!
Web tools:
Animoto:
Animoto is an awesome fun tool that gives ease of access to create slide shows of field trips and learning concepts. You can present your project with videos, photos and texts. Simply upload your pictures and video clips, choose your style, add words and music, and click the “produce video” button. Then, Animoto’s cinematic technology does its magic and in minutes brings you a greatest presentation that can attract every student to focus on it. Free apps also available here for android users.
Dipity:
Dipity is a browser cum tool for sharing projects on interactive timeline. Dipity’s mission is to take the most useful information on the Internet and organize it by time. By providing digital timeline technology, Dipity allows users to gather real-time sources from social media, traditional search services and RSS to aggregate them in a single, easy to use, fun to navigate interface. Students can select the type of theme they need when creating new projects. Dipity is great for mapping content visually in History and Social Science. The final result can be viewed as a slideshow, list, flipbook or a template of events.
More Digital tools:
MindNode:
MindNode is a powerful and intuitive mindmapping application. Its focus and flexibility make it the perfect tool for brainstorming and organizing your life—and iCloud & Dropbox support means you always have your mind maps with you. You can do lot of concept mind mapping, you can save, share and publish your works.
Platform: iOS
Price: It costs 10 $ but the application worth many more.
Evernote:
Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stays organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.
Platform: Web browser, iOS, Android
Price: Freemium (Free till 60 MB)
Twitter:
It’s Twitter. You know how it works, but you need to know how effectively we can use in classroom. Get real-time stories, pictures, videos, conversations, ideas, and inspiration all in your timeline. Seems clumsy but I’m sure students will like this learning experience in class.
Platform: Web browser, iOS, Android
Price: Free
These are few web and digital tools which help in project based learning. With the help of these tools, you can engage students in complex, real-world problem solving. Teachers can encourage work that is complex and draws on a full range of students’ abilities. Do you know more such tools? Share with us in the comment box.
